Centre spares Naxalite ‘friends’

Comrades the madness and paranoia that we keep whiningabout on this blog is no figment of our imagination but isspreading at an alarming rate throughout the rotten corpseof the government,just like how rigor mortis spreads in adead body.

We estimate that an emergency like situation could emerge towards the end of this year.

MANAN KUMARNew Delhi, April 10: A crackdown that might have beenlabelled “India’s McCarthyism” was about to unfold early thisyear but for a “top-level intervention”.

The home ministry came under intense pressure in Februaryto act against academics and bureaucrats perceived to be Naxalitesympathisers, it emerged today. Those on the undeclared blacklistincluded several senior serving and retired bureaucrats.

A section of the home ministry officials, advocating a tough lineagainst “overground” sympathisers of Naxalites, raised thepitch after arming itself with a report on a seminar held in Januaryon the campus of a university in Delhi.

The report, drawn up by home ministry officials, said thetenor of the seminar was “pro-Naxalite”. The participants, who includedbureaucrats, academics and students, engaged themselves in“anti-state” discussions that seemed to justify armed uprising, it said.

By February, the officials behind the initiative had begun todiscuss specific punitive measures that could be taken against the“sympathisers”. Penalties put on the table included shunting officialsto nondescript areas and cutting down retirement benefits.

However, “intervention from the top” — sources would not identifythe person but would only say no politician was involved — nippedthe plan.

A near-certain public furore and the ruling establishment’swell-known eagerness to preserve its liberal credentials were theprimary factors that forced the rethink, the sources said.

A clampdown would have drawn comparisons with SenatorJoseph McCarthy’s communist witch-hunt in the US in the 1950s.Then too, the prime targets were bureaucrats and teachers,besides showbiz personalities.

Suspicion of growing Naxalite influence in urban areas hadprompted central intelligence units to draw up a list of 664 organisations and their functionaries for scrutiny.

The drive assumed urgency after pockets of protests beganmushrooming against land acquisition for industry in several partsof the country.

The Centre feels that industrial belts such as Gurgaon andFaridabad would become a fertile ground for Naxalites to strike rootwith the help of the urban support groups.

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